Muhammad Did it Again! More Proof that Jesus is God Incarnate Pt. 1

The ahadith report that Muhammad sought protection in the perfect, eternal words of his deity:

 42 Model Behavior of the Prophet (Kitab Al-Sunnah)

(1698) Chapter: The Qur’an, The Word Of Allah

Ibn ‘Abbas said:

The Prophet used to seek refuge in Allah for al-Hasan and al-Husain, saying; I seek refuge for both of you in the perfect words of Allah from every devil and every poisonous thing and from the evil eye which influences. He would then say; your father sought refuge in Allah by them for Ismail and Ishaq.

Abu Dawud said; this is a proof of the fact that the Quran IS NOT CREATED.

 Grade: SAHIH (Al-Albani)

 Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud 4737

In-book reference: Book 42, Hadith 142

English translation: Book 41, Hadith 4719 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/abudawud/42/142; capital and underline emphasis mine)

The translator says in a note that:

4127. The Prophet called the Qur’an the perfect words of Allah. A perfect word cannot be a created thing. (Sunan Abu Dawud, English translation with explanatory notes by Prof. Ahmad Hasan [Sh. Muhammad Ashraf Publishers, Booksellers & Exporters; Lahore, Pakistan, 1984], XXXV. Kitab al-Sunnah [Book of Model Behaviour (of the Prophet)], Chapter 1698: The Qur’an, The Word of Allah, pp. 1325-26; bold emphasis mine)

And:

6. The sixth proof

It was narrated that Khawlah bint Hakeem said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: “Whoever stops at a place and says: I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from the evil of that which He has created, nothing will harm him until he moves on from that place.”. Narrated by Muslim (2708). 

If His words were created, then seeking refuge in them would be shirk, because that would be seeking refuge in something that is created. It is well-known that seeking refuge in anything other than Allah, may He be exalted, and His names and attributes is shirk, so how could the Prophet have taught his ummah something that is obviously shirk, when he is the one who came to teach them pure Tawheed?

This indicates that the words of Allah, may He be exalted, are not created.

Na‘eem ibn Hammaad said: Refuge is not to be sought in anything that is created, or in the words of people, jinn, humans or angels.

Al-Bukhaari said, after quoting that: This indicates that the words of Allah are not created, and that everything other than Him is created.

See: Khalq Af‘aal al-‘Ibaad (p. 143) (Islam Question & Answer, “Ten textual and rational proofs that the Qur’an is the word of Allah and is not created” https://islamqa.info/en/answers/219613/ten-textual-and-rational-proofs-that-the-quran-is-the-word-of-allah-and-is-not-created; bold emphasis mine)

What makes this so remarkable is that Muhammad testified that Jesus is the perfect Word of his deity!

For instance, the Quran states that Christ was absolutely pure and faultless from his conception:

He said: I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a faultless son. S. 19:19 Pickthall

He said, “I am the messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure son.” Khalifa

The Islamic scripture further teaches that Yahya, i.e. John the Baptist, was sent to bear witness to a Word from Allah, namely Jesus the Christ:

Then the angels called to him as he stood praying in the sanctuary: That Allah gives you the good news of Yahya verifying a Word from Allah, and honorable and chaste and a prophet from among the good ones. S. 3:39 Shakir

Here is how the Muslim expositors explained this particular text:

Mention when the angels namely Gabriel said ‘O Mary God gives you good tidings of a Word from Him that is a boy whose name is the Messiah Jesus son of Mary He addresses her attributing him to her in order to point out that she will give birth to him without a father for the custom is to attribute the child to its father honoured shall he be in this world through prophethood and the Hereafter through his intercession and the high stations al-darajāt al-‘ulā cf. Q. 2075 and of those brought close to God. (Tafsir al-Jalalayn https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=3&tAyahNo=45&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2; bold and underline emphasis mine)

(believing in the Word from Allah) Al-`Awfi reported that Ibn `Abbas said, and also Al-Hasan, Qatadah, `Ikrimah, Mujahid, Abu Ash-Sha`tha, As-Suddi, Ar-Rabi` bin Anas, Ad-Dahhak, and several others said that the Ayah…

(believing in the Word from Allah) means, “Believing in `Isa, son of Maryam.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir http://www.alim.org/library/quran/AlQuran-tafsir/TIK/3/38; bold and underline emphasis mine)

Note that Jesus is expressly said to be the Word from Allah.

The fact that Christ is a Word from Allah implies his prehuman existence, that he preexisted with Allah as his very own Word. This point is brought out more clearly in the following passage:

“Behold,” the angels told Mary, “God has given you the glad news of the coming birth of a son whom He calls His Word, whose name will be Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, who will be a man of honor in this life and the life to come, and who will be one of the ones nearest to God.” S. 3:45 Muhammad Sarwar

According to this verse, the Word is not a mere abstraction or command, but an actual person. This is due to the fact that the Word is given a personal name, i.e., the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary.

This in itself refutes the oft-repeated Muslim argument that Jesus is only called the Word of Allah because he is a by-product of Allah’s Word, being brought into existence by the creative command of Allah. The text emphatically affirms that the Word didn’t make Jesus, but rather the Word IS Jesus himself.

Jesus is, therefore, the perfect uncreated Word of Allah come down from heaven, a fact confirmed by Q. 4:171:

O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His messengers. Say not ‘Trinity’: desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs.” Yusuf Ali

Christ is the Word of Allah, not just a word from him, that proceeded as a Spirit from him and entered into Mary to become human. This is precisely why Islamic tradition calls Jesus both Kalimatullah (“the Word of Allah”) and Ruhullah (“the Spirit of Allah”):

Ruh-Ullah – Spirit of God, A special title given by Prophet Muhammad to Jesus (A. A.) (M. A. Qazi, Concise Dictionary of Islamic Terms [Kazi Publications, Chicago IL, 1979], p. 57; bold emphasis mine)

“… They will go to ‘Isa and say, ‘O ‘Isa! You are the Messenger of Allah and His Word which He cast to Maryam and a spirit from Him. You spoke to people while in the cradle. Intercede with your Lord on our behalf. Do you not see what we are suffering?’ ‘Isa will say, ‘My Lord is angry today with such anger as has never existed before nor will again,’ AND HE DID NOT MENTION A SIN. ‘O my soul! My soul! My soul! Go to someone else. Go to Muhammad.’ (Aisha Bewley, The Sahih Collection of al-Bukhari, Chapter 68. Book of Tafsir; bold, capital and underline emphasis ours)

It is narrated on the authority of Ubadah b. Samit that the messenger of Allah observed: HE WHO SAID: “There is no god but Allah, He is One and there is no associate with Him, that Muhammad is his servant and His messenger, that Christ is servant and the son of His slave-girl and he (Christ) HIS WORD which He communicated to Mary and is HIS SPIRIT, that Paradise is a fact and Hell is a fact,” Allah would make him (he who affirms these truths enter Paradise through any one of its eight doors which he would like. (Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Number 0043)

This is the closest the Quran comes in affirming the prologue of John’s Gospel since this passage clearly teaches that Jesus is God’s Word who was an immaterial Spirit that descended into the sanctified and blessed womb of Mary in order to take on human flesh:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind… The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4, 9-10, 14

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:1-3

“He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.” Revelation 19:13

 Hence, if we were to apply Muhammad’s invocation then Christ is the perfect uncreated Word of God whose protection true believers can invoke and seek after!

Note the logic behind this argument:

  1. Muhammad sought shelter in the perfect words of Allah.
  2. Allah’s words must be uncreated in order for them to be perfect.
  3. Muhammad taught that Jesus is the perfect Word of Allah who became flesh.
  4. Jesus must, therefore, be uncreated by nature even though the physical body he took on was created.
  5. Since Jesus is the perfect Word of Allah Muslims can, therefore, seek his protection and shelter.

With that said, I am ready to proceed to the next part of the discussion (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/muhammad-did-it-again-more-proof-that-jesus-is-god-incarnate-pt-2/).